Junior Software Engineer

Matrix Education is seeking a Junior Software Engineer to join its in-house product and engineering team in Sydney. The position is designed for a recent university graduate who has strong problem-solving ability, an interest in modern software development and a willingness to work with AI-assisted engineering tools.

The successful candidate will work alongside senior engineers and product builders to develop and ship software used within Matrix's education environment. The role focuses on practical software development rather than purely theoretical engineering work. The engineer will contribute to web applications, internal tools and product improvements while learning how software moves from an initial idea through development, testing, deployment and real-world use.

A major part of the position involves building features using Next.js, TypeScript and Node. The role also involves working with applications deployed through Vercel and data stored in PostgreSQL. Candidates are expected to understand modern web development concepts and have exposure to technologies such as JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Next.js and SQL.

The engineer will use AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code and Cursor. Rather than simply accepting generated code, the position requires the engineer to review AI-generated output carefully, identify errors and security concerns, check edge cases and make appropriate changes. The successful candidate should be able to understand the code they use and explain why it works.

Responsibilities include developing Next.js and Node features, creating components and API routes, testing changes, participating in code reviews and helping move completed work into production. The engineer will work closely with a senior engineer during the development lifecycle and will progressively become more independent.

The position also includes reading existing application code and understanding system architecture before making changes. This is particularly important because Matrix integrates its technology environment with platforms such as Salesforce and Snowflake. The engineer will need to consider how new functionality interacts with existing systems rather than treating individual features as isolated pieces of software.

Another important responsibility is testing. Candidates will be expected to write tests for the software they ship and check generated test coverage when AI tools are used. The role therefore combines development, testing, review and deployment responsibilities.

The successful applicant will also participate in product discussions, discovery activities and storymapping sessions. This means the position is not limited to writing code. The engineer will be encouraged to understand who uses a product, why a feature is required and how users interact with the finished software.

Matrix describes the position as part of a small, high-velocity team. Because of the team structure, the successful applicant is expected to ask questions early, communicate clearly and actively seek feedback from senior team members. The role provides direct exposure to experienced engineers rather than relying on a large engineering department.

Over the first 90 days, expected progress includes shipping multiple production changes, taking well-defined tickets through development and deployment, demonstrating the ability to review AI-generated code and participating in product discovery or storymapping sessions.

Over six to twelve months, the engineer is expected to take greater ownership of internal tools or product features, work on larger changes with increasing independence and explain how their work affects useful product or business metrics.

The role is particularly suitable for a graduate or early-career developer who enjoys building software, experimenting with modern development approaches and learning through practical projects. Matrix also identifies exposure to CI/CD, testing frameworks, deployment tooling, public repositories or project write-ups as useful additional experience. Interest in education, tutoring or teaching is also considered a nice-to-have.

Overall, the role combines junior software engineering, full-stack web development, AI-assisted programming, testing, product collaboration and production deployment within Matrix Education's Sydney-based technology environment.